Tag: commercial design

January 25, 2022

Wood Look Tiles for the Long Haul: Porcelain’s Advantage for Commercial Spaces

Who doesn’t love the look of a beautiful hardwood floor? Whether it’s rugged, reclaimed wood, or a showstopping, exquisite rare hardwood, wood floors are undeniably attractive and desirable in many applications. But is real wood flooring what you really want for a demanding commercial environment that must stand up to hundreds, if not thousands, of footsteps daily, wear from rolling carts and dollies, excessive dirt, spills, and worse?

Authentic wood floors are lovely, but they’re difficult to maintain, especially in commercial settings. Real wood is easily damaged by foot and rolling traffic and requires careful maintenance to keep up the ‘wow’ factor. These floors need specialist know-how, products, and equipment to keep looking their best – all of which come at a price, not to mention the inconvenience.

Enter porcelain wood-look tiles — they are a boon to commercial environments where the look of wood flooring is desired. Wood-look porcelain is sustainable, incredibly durable, and extremely easy to maintain. Then there are the health and wellness benefits: because porcelain tile is non-porous and impermeable, it is sanitary, resisting germs and mold like no other.

Add to all those winning characteristics the stunning looks now available (thanks to the leaps and bounds made in print technology in recent years, the increase in plank sizes, and the wood-like textures that were added along the way), and the choice of wood-look over real wood for a commercial environment is practically a no-brainer. With all the fabulous options available, you definitely do not have to trade high style for practical flooring that can take a beating. You can have both thanks to the versatility of porcelain.

When it comes to authentic, artistic, and unique wood-look tiles, GIO’s got you covered. Our selections capture wood’s appearance in a range of interpretations that will meet your demanding specification requirements as well as complement any design style. All of these tiles will continue looking great for the long haul and hold their own against countless assaults from foot traffic, sunlight, moisture, and even bleach. Click here to see all the wood-look porcelain tile styles we offer.

GIO is your gateway to beautifully designed, strategically selected collections of floor and wall tile sure to fit your demanding specification requirements and unique style. We look forward to working with you!

February 14, 2020

How Instagrammable Are Your Commercial Spaces?

There’s no doubt that social media (and Instagram in particular) has made a huge impact on the world of commercial interior design over the last decade. Unlike Facebook and Twitter, though, images are the whole point of Instagram. This constant exposure to imagery has made everyone more design-savvy, creating a market that is more attuned to the looks and details of designed spaces than ever before.

In the era before social media, designers focused primarily on a space’s effect on its occupants. How a room looked in a photograph was a secondary concern, at best. But now, how a space looks when photographed is paramount. People (millennials, especially) are drawn to spaces that will translate beautifully on Instagram. Every corner is a potential photo backdrop for people who love to get likes and regrams.

Hotels can no longer be vanilla; they have to be unique, photo-worthy, and full of surprises. According to data from mobile travel app HotelTonight, when it comes to picking a hotel room, millennials prefer a picture-perfect room they can share on social media over saving money on a cheaper room. And one in three people book a vacation after falling in love with a hotel or destination on Instagram.

According to The Verge, the average restaurant guest takes photos for ten minutes before ordering anything. And it’s not just food photos— it’s a real thing to get a coveted picture of that patterned floor!

Tile, with its colors, textures, and patterns, is ideal for enhancing the photo-worthiness of spaces. The upgrade of tile for floors and walls has pay-offs, as more Instagrammable spaces attract attention and can represent designers and design firms very well.

“Everyone loves a beautiful tiled floor, and it’s not just designers. Maybe it’s the classic square framing of the app, or the sheer popularity of accounts such as @ihavethisthingwithfloors (829k followers) and @parisianfloors (145k) – either way, tiles draw in a huge number of Instagram users. Tiles provide a visual connector throughout a restaurant space and, in addition to enabling the perfect feet-and-floor shot, also look great when photographed in perspective.” ~ Sabrina Syed, ArchDaily

GIO’s range of looks offers so many visually appealing options. Follow us on Instagram for ideas, and check out these top three collections that are sure to up the ‘Gram game for your design firm. (Click the images to see the full collection on our website).

VINTAGE by GIO — a patterned porcelain tile collection for floors and walls, shown here in Vecchio

ROMBO by GIO for floors and walls in Cobalt 7×13, antiqued and glossy

PIGMENT by GIO for floors & walls in 2×14 Navy

August 30, 2019

Workplace Design: The Comforts of Home

There’s no place like home. Home-like environments in the office can lead to more comfortable, and presumably, happier workers. And happy workers, according to current theories, work harder. In fact, studies show that happy workers are more productive and creative.

Enter resimercial design—a design style that brings the homey feel of residential furnishings, layouts, and amenities into the workplace. Resimercial design is a marriage of commercial durability with a residential feel, a style that celebrates residential-inspired features over the standardized feel of traditional corporate designs and furnishings. The goal behind resimercial design and furnishings is to make the workspace a welcoming, comfortable place to spend time, something that employees are increasingly demanding. Millennials, in particular, are a big part of what’s driving the demand. Today’s professionals want spaces that inspire. They want spaces that allow them to express their individuality, as well as collaborate with others. This trend is especially important to millennials who grew up with mobile technology that allowed them to seek out the best, most comfortable places to study and collaborate.

Getting Started With Resimercial Design

Ambiance

Designing your new resimercial office with a focus on ambient features will help to make your office feel less formal and structured.

Wood look tiles are often the answer to inject warmth and create a homey vibe into commercial spaces. Shown here is Fountaine porcelain tile in Noce.

Durability

Most residential furnishings and materials can’t stand up to the hard wear and tear that commercial environments are subject to. Fortunately, the resimercial trend has caused many suppliers to offer lines of residential-inspired furniture and materials with commercial quality.

Contempo porcelain tile in in Calacatta

Collaboration

The resimercial design movement prioritizes the power of collaboration. With this in mind, focus on layout features that facilitate movement and interconnection.

Traverse porcelain tile in Grey

Variability

It’s important to remember that comfort is subjective. In addition to collaborative spaces, create a variety of spaces, including secluded areas, to suit different needs and individual work styles.

Farmhouse porcelain tile in Beige

Many companies like Google and Lyft have successfully invested in resimercial design for their offices so that workers can relax and collaborate more naturally. There’s really no argument—making the workplace feel like home helps to increase employee retention, productivity, and creativity.